Rome: The beginning of the next 30 days

We've arrived in Rome in the middle of a heatwave. Everyday just gets hotter than the one before and locals are saying it's unseasonably warm. Going out into the city is like preparing yourself for battle. We came from nice weather in other countries, but this, this is weather that makes us dread putting on clothes and if it weren't for the sleazy, sleazy Italian men, we might be tempted to give in.

Our first few days in Rome were spent setting up house -- going to the grocery store, banking, and mailing packages. Only the grocery shopping turned out the be the easy task since just when we start to get comfortable, Italy laughs in our face and reminds us that it's a culture unlike any other.

Trying to withdraw enough money to pay rent from a bank here was an education. It turns out in order to withdraw over $300 we needed special permission from Bank of America, permission that only lasts until midnight pacific time from the time it's granted, when at that point, Italian banks had long closed. We literally had 30 minutes where the two banks' hours of operation overlapped long enough to make the transaction. True to style though, it took us 3 days to pull this plan together thanks to inadequacies on both the Italian and American fronts.

Shipping packages was another all-consuming experience. With a broken computer and a load of things we had been hauling since the markets in Florence, we were desperate to have things sent back to the States. Going on directions from a grocery clerk, we started looking for the post office that was supposed to be "over the bridge and to the left."

No post office.

So we ask inside a shop and we're told that she doesn't know of a post close by, but she does know of one that is about a 30-minute walk down the road. Great, except she shakes her head at us and essentially says we'll never make it in time considering that it's 1:00 and the post office closes at 2:00. Aside from this being an ungodly early time for a post office to close, there's a difference of 30 minutes that would make us Americans think "so, what's the problem?"

The problem, we learned, is that arriving at 1:40 and taking a number in an Italian post office means absolutely nothing.

After a half-hour long trek with 20 pounds of extra weight, we take a number at the post office, wait our turn, and just as they should be serving us, tell us they're closed. But we're inside? We have a number? It's 1:45?!

They don't care. They are closed as of this moment and will not help us - come back tomorrow.

Thankfully, an American ex-pat leaving the post office tells us that she knows of a post office open past 2:00 that she thinks is near Largo Argentina. Fine, great. We walk there and yes, there is a post office, but it's closed for construction and has been probably for months. We stop people on the street and they tell us they know of only one post office that we would even have a shot at across town. So off we go. Across town with only a smattering of directions, but they eventually lead us to a post office that appears to still be functioning.

Later, we learn that "functioning" is not be the proper term for an Italian post office -- best to use the word "open." The full list of complications would bore a person to tears, but the overview consists of a post office that sells boxes, but no packing supplies, a helper who clearly didn't work at the shipping desk, but saw two American girls and decided to come out from the back room to assist and the half-hearted guarantee that our packages would arrive after 35 days. After 35 days? How long after?

The update to all of this is that of course our gifts were shipped and clearly we received our computer. The good news is that our familes even received our boxes in record time. The bad news is that whoever handled Amy's package had sticky fingers, as half the items she shipped didn't arrive in the States, and it had nothing to do with customs. More than likely it's a product of a system so flawed it's amazing that this culture accomplished so much despite it.